The Devil’s Footprints

On the morning of February 9, 1855, residents of Devon, England, awoke to find a strange trail of prints in the fresh snow. The prints were roughly four inches long, shaped like cloven hooves, and appeared to have been made by a biped walking in a straight line. Most remarkably, the trail extended for approximately 100 miles, crossing rivers, climbing walls, and passing over rooftops as if the maker had simply walked through any obstacle.

The Discovery

The heavy snowfall of February 8 blanketed the countryside of South Devon. When residents emerged the following morning, they found the mysterious tracks. The prints appeared in numerous towns and villages, including Exmouth, Topsham, Dawlish, Teignmouth, and others.

The tracks were approximately four inches long and three inches wide, roughly U-shaped or hoof-shaped. They appeared at regular intervals of about eight inches, as if made by a biped rather than a four-legged animal. Most disturbingly, the tracks maintained their consistent shape and spacing regardless of the terrain they crossed.

Impossible Trajectory

What transformed an odd animal track into a mystery was the path the tracks followed. They crossed the frozen River Exe, approximately two miles wide, continuing on the opposite bank. They climbed walls, crossed rooftops, passed through drainpipes too narrow for any known animal, and continued on the other side of haystacks as if the obstacle did not exist.

The tracks appeared on both sides of the estuary, leading to speculation that whatever made them had either crossed the water or was present in multiple locations simultaneously.

Public Reaction

The discovery caused panic throughout Devon. Many believed the tracks were made by the Devil himself, walking through their community and perhaps marking those he intended to claim. Church attendance reportedly increased dramatically.

Hunting parties armed with dogs attempted to follow the tracks, but the dogs reportedly refused to pursue the scent. The trail simply continued, mile after mile, through conditions that should have been impassable.

Investigations

Numerous explanations have been proposed over the years. Early theories included an escaped kangaroo, a badger, rats, or a weather balloon trailing a shackle. More recent proposals have included a runaway donkey, a wood mouse whose tracks were enlarged by melting, or multiple animals whose tracks happened to align.

Richard Owen, the famous naturalist, suggested the tracks were made by multiple badgers over a period of time, with melting and refreezing distorting their shape. However, witnesses insisted the tracks appeared fresh and occurred in a single night.

Some researchers have proposed mass hysteria, suggesting that reports of tracks in one village led residents of other villages to interpret ordinary animal prints as part of the same mysterious trail.

Modern Analysis

The case has never been satisfactorily explained. The physical evidence has long since melted, and contemporary accounts vary in their details. What seems certain is that many people across a wide area observed unusual tracks that morning, and that these observations sparked genuine fear.

Whether a single phenomenon created all the tracks, or whether multiple causes combined to create the appearance of a connected trail, remains unknown. The distance involved—approximately 100 miles if all reports are accurate—rules out most animal explanations.

Assessment

The Devil’s Footprints represent one of nineteenth-century England’s most enduring mysteries. The contemporary documentation is extensive, including newspaper reports, letters to scientific journals, and local records. Many respectable witnesses described the tracks.

What walked through Devon that night remains unknown. The explanation, if there is one, must account for tracks that crossed rivers, climbed walls, traversed rooftops, and continued for dozens or hundreds of miles. No proposed solution has adequately explained all the reported features of this strange episode.